Excerpt from Dadland by Keggie Carew, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

'Did you ever kill anyone, Dad?' I recall asking as a child.

'Um. Well,' he hesitated.

I could see him thinking about it, which was a little chilling.

'No, I don't think I personally killed anyone,' he said.

Maybe he thought I meant with his bare hands ...

As Dad slowly leaves us, I try to haul him back – from the bottom of cardboard boxes and forgotten trunks; from letters buried in desks; from books I previously had not known about; from photographs I am unfamiliar with; from diaries never meant for my eyes. I am the manic charity- shop rummager rifling through old clothes. I don't know why I have taken on this task; as it is, I've been under the gravitational pull of his influence far too long. Except that suddenly I need to make some sense of it all. It's not just Dad I want to stick back together again. This is an exorcism. And a ghost hunt. Rebuild him. Rebuild me.

Dadland © 2016 by Keggie Carew. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher, Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, Inc. All rights reserved.